member of the human race

It's funny how you find yourself talking to random strangers who you have never seen before, or lets say its the other way round random strangers start conversations with you when you had no intention what so ever to say anything to them, it always seems to happen.

take Wednesday for instance, I was at the dressing clinic with my bro and mother, we where sat in the reception area waiting for our turn, I noticed that there was an Asian man sat opposite us staring at us, I turned around to my mum and whispered 'what's his problem, he keeps looking at us' my mum just told me to ignore him, but that's one thing I cant do, I cant stand people who stare it bugs the living day lights out of me and it will really annoy me until I either get up and leave or that person leaves or a fight starts, in this case I started a staring match with him.

whilst the staring match was happening he automatically takes out a can of lager out of a plastic bag and proceeds to drink as if trying to tell me 'this is easy for me, I do this all the time' (apparently its his second can, are you even allowed to drink in clinics?) my eyes began to water so I had to blink, my blinking was the opportunity for him to speak, I guess he thought I winked at him, sigh.... The dude had one hell of a voice on him, we where just a few centimeters away from him yet we could have been miles and would have heard him clearly.

the conversation went something like this:

man: when did you celebrate eid? Yesterday or the day before yesterday?

mum: Monday,we celebrated eid on Monday.

man: oh, you celebrated with Al-Jazeerah? (lol, oh yeh the news channel, course!!!!)

mum: sorry

me: mama just ignore him..

mama: no miskeen (poor thing), we followed Saudi

man: oh you from Saudi Arabia?

mama: no where not

man: where you from if you don't mind me asking

me: earth..

mama: Libya

man: oh wow, ana 3isht fee misrata 7 sineen (tanslation: oh wow I lived in misrata -a city around 2 hours away from Tripoli- for 7 years)

me: oh my god, the dude speaks Arabic

mama: mashallah, really, we are originally from misrata.

bro: laughing into his jacket

man: I am originally from Pakistan, but my baba and mama traveled every where for work, my baba he was a eye doctor, you know kind fahad from Saudi Arabia?

mama: yes yes

man: baba operated on him

mama: ok mashallah

man: ana kunt atakalim al 3arabi mithl al boulboul (translation- I used to be able to talk Arabic like a hoopoe bird)

mama: oh what happened?

man: I have no Arabs to talk to so I lost most of it

mama: that's a shame, but still mshallah your Arabic is good

man: not any more love (then with a horrified look on his face started to apologies) sorry, sorry not love I mean sister

me: lol

mama: its ok

man: ok back to my life story, I am originally from Pakistan but we lived on the outskirts of Afghanistan, and when the Russians where attacking Afghanistan I had to defend it because I love Afghanistan, it was terrible sister, baba mat, mama mat, zawjatee mat (translation- mum died, dad died, my wife died)

mama: ina lila wa ina ilayhee rajee300n (translation- to Allah we belong and to him is our return)

man: yes, I got chemical burnt on both my legs, and I salute this country (he then stands up and does a saluting sign with his hand and then sits down again)

man: the government of this country took me in (wow that would have been Thatcher, nice of her to take him in to 10 downing street), I salute them, they pay more than a grand a month for my health care, my country would have left me to die, probably would have killed me to get me out the way, so I salute this country.

then the national anthem went off and we all stood up and sang - actually that bit didn't happen.

instead the man got up walked towards us lifted his leg up and my mum bless her nearly fainted from the sight, all his bandages had fallen around his ankles and where his leg was supposed to be was gunk, half of the leg wasn't there, we could actually see the bone. My mum covered her mouth and was saying:

mama: nasul Allah al 3afwah wal 3afeeyah (translation - iask Allah for good health)

man: I wont show you my other leg, you will be sick for the next week if I do, I will save you from this.

mama: thank you, subhannallah how this happen?

man: war sister, this is a cause of war, I have to many problems in my life, I am Muslim and people always judge me and look down on me cause I drink alcohol, but alcohol is one thing and having faith in my heart is another thing, they are separate things, the alcohol makes me forget and nulls the pain of life for me.

mama: Allah yihdeek inshallah (translation - may Allah guide you)

man: yes sister. so what happened to your son?

mama: fireworks brother, some one threw on at him

man: oh, if I could I will take his pain, he is only young, I have to much pain,a little more pain wont harm me.

how sweet was that? Seriously when he said that it wasn't fake, it was genuine, subhanallah.

mama: oh thanks you brother you are kind

man: no no

he then points at me at me and says: is he your daughter

mam: yes, she's my eldest

man: is she married?

me: mumbling hello im here, stop talking like im invisable

mama: knudging me, no she is not

man: oh so when you going to send her off to get married?

bro: nearly falls off his chair laughing

me: is this man for real?

mama: sorry?

man: you do arranged marriage?

my mum at this point starts to explain to him the difference between arranged marriages and forced marriages, can I point out that we had an audience in the room, people where on the edge of there seats listening to us. After the mini lecture the man turns around and says:

man: is your son married?

now it was my turn to fall off the chair laughing, my brother shouts out of course not I'm only 17.

and before he could ask if my mum was married, lol, he got called in to the nurses room, leaving us behind waiting for our turn.

how weird is that? it truly is amazing the kind of people we meet in our lives, really does make it that much more interesting....